DigDub
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2002
- Posts
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I got this tiny player the Creativex Festival in Singapore on the first day of launch. It costs SGD$329.
Packaging
The box is a colorful one. It is made out of ordinary cardboard. The player itself sits inside a dug-out of a piece of styrofoam. Beneath it are the accessories. The Neeon is available in 10 casing colors.
Accessories
The accessories consist of a pair of earbuds with foam cover (the same model as the ones included with the Micro, but in black color), a mini-USB to USB cable, a plain fabric black lanyard, a pouch, a software CD that rips CD and drivers for Windows 98 (haven't used it yet), user guide, a piece of stik-on and a 2.5mm - 3.5mm male-to-male cable (I will explain what this cable is for later on). Creative has chosen not to include a wall power adapter, maybe to cut down on costs. The wall power adapter (plugs into the mini-USB socket on the Neeon) can be bought separately. The unit can be recharged through a computer's USB port. However, an inclusion of a power adapter would have been nice.
Looks
The Neeon.
Front:
Screen displays EQ, Repeat mode, battery life, time progress of song, song number (e.g. 2/18), scrolling song title, progress bar and finally length of the song.
Left:
Volume Control and Hold slider.
Top:
2.5mm line-in jack, 3.5mm headphone jack and mini-USB port.
Right:
Rocker and Play/Pause button.
Back:
Brushed aluminium back.
Smaller than a credit card:
7 colors LED:
Orange:
Green:
Blue:
Violet:
Cyan:
Lime Green:
Light Blue:
There is also an option for random LED colors. This means that a random color will be displayed each time the Neeon lights up.
Navigation
If you have used a Creative mp3 player before, the Neeon menu system is basically the same as the other players. During the startup, the 7 colors LED will flash alternately. Startup can take anything from 12 seconds to 30 seconds, depending on whether any updating of content is needed (after new file/music transfer).
The interface is a tad laggy. It can be slow to respond at times. The scroller is not an actual wheel. It is basically a 'rocker'. It can be moved up, down and pressed in to select items.
You would have to be quite fast in selecting things, or else the player will go back to the Now Playing screen after around 6 seconds of inactivity. There is a back '<-' arrow at the end of every menu list that allows you to go back. But it might be tedious if the list is long. For example, when browsing the folders, and you are smack in the middle of a long list, waiting 6 seconds might be faster instead of trying to scroll to the '<-' option.
The Neeon will remember the last place you stopped at inside the sub-menus. For example, if you were browsing in a folder and you selected the second song from the ABC folder to play, the next time you go into Browse menu, it will bring you back to the second song of ABC folder. Some people may not like this as they might prefer to be brought to the current folder or song that is being played. This is also the same for other sub-menus, such as Play Mode, Backlight, etc. It will bring you back to the last choice you selected.
Loading of songs is done through Drag-and-Drop method in Windows Explorer. No software is required. The Neeon shows up as an external drive in Windows Explorer. Transfer speed is around the same as the Micro and the Muvo2 FM (i.e. microdrive speed), not blazingly fast like the Sony HD3, but not too shabby either. After disconnecting the USB from the computer, restart time is noticably faster than the Muvo2 FM. Browsing of songs on the Neeon is folder-based.
Playback
The Neeon seems to have some problem fast-forwarding and rewinding VBR MP3 tracks. For example, the time would sometimes go forward a bit when rewinding and go backwards a bit when forwarding (something similar to taking 2 steps forward and 1/2 a step back).
There is a gap between songs. Unlike the Muvo2 FM player which has a tiny gap, the gap between songs on the Neeon is quite big. Gap between songs is around 4 seconds.
edit: I've read on DAP Review that someone thinks my stopwatch is broken and that the 4 secs gap is unbelievable. Let me say this, the gap is really around 4 seconds. For example, between songs which are supposed to be 'gapless' (i.e. smooth transition between tracks), the Neeon has a 3-4 seconds gap between them. On some songs, at the last 2-3 seconds, there is even stuttering as the player buffers the next track. I suspect that the player buffers the next song too close to the current one that is playing, resulting in the long delay in loading the next track and the occasional stutter. Hope Creative will fix this in the next firmware release.
There is no On-The-Fly playlist. Playlists can be imported into the player though.
When you switch off the player or go into any of the recording modes or radio, it will not continue from the position where you last stopped. Instead, it will go to the the start of the track again. For tracks which are very long, it might be a bit of a problem since you would have to fast-forward to the position where you last stopped.
Deleting of music tracks can be done on the player itself. Data files cannot be deleted since it does not show up in the player itself.
Features
The Stik-on is what makes the Neeon special. But I have not tried applying the default rainbow sticker on as I feel that it looks the best when naked.
The Neeon comes with mic recording, line-in recording and radio. Recording bitrate can be set to 32kbps wav, 96kbps mp3, 128kbps mp3 or 160kbps mp3.
The line-in recording jack has a peculiar 2.5mm jack instead of the normal 3.5mm jack. Creative has provided a 'line-in cable" that has a 2.5mm pole on one end and a 3.5mm pole the other end. Line-in recording has a Track Detection function. I presume this function is similar to those used in MiniDisc analogue recording, where a silence of of more than 3-4 seconds will mean a seperate track. In Neeon's case, it means another file.
Radio reception is pretty decent and recording from radio is possible. Recording quality is pretty good.
Sound
The sound quality is excellent from both the Creative ep-630 earphones (Sharp MD33 clone) and the Etymotic ER6i and could drive both with no problems. The headphone power output is rated at 5-7mW per channel.
The soundstage is good. It does not sound too narrow nor does it sound too wide.
The 5 band EQ has +14 steps and -14 steps for each band. The EQ is very adjustable and one would definitely be able to find a setting that suits his listening preference. Unlike the Muvo2 FM, the bass on the Neeon can be pushed to the max without distorting.
Creative has also fixed the hissing problem when the backlight comes on. I believe this problems affects most of Creative's products, including the Micro. On the Neeon, there is no hissing whatsoever. Switching tracks will produce a little 'tick' sound before the track starts playing, but its nothing to be bothered about.
Conclusion
For the Neeon, Creative has chosen to focus more on the design aspect of the player rather than the functionality. The Neeon has a very Zen feel to it and the 7 colors LED backlight makes the player fun and hip. The Neeon will appeal to young working adults who want something that looks classy and serves basic playback needs. For the more experienced DAP owners, the Neeon will feel like 'another similar Creative product'. The software problems needs to be ironed out, such as the VBR MP3 rewind-forward problem and the 'go back to start of track' problem. Other than that, the Neeon is a very small-sized player and has excellent sound quality.
Packaging
The box is a colorful one. It is made out of ordinary cardboard. The player itself sits inside a dug-out of a piece of styrofoam. Beneath it are the accessories. The Neeon is available in 10 casing colors.
Accessories
The accessories consist of a pair of earbuds with foam cover (the same model as the ones included with the Micro, but in black color), a mini-USB to USB cable, a plain fabric black lanyard, a pouch, a software CD that rips CD and drivers for Windows 98 (haven't used it yet), user guide, a piece of stik-on and a 2.5mm - 3.5mm male-to-male cable (I will explain what this cable is for later on). Creative has chosen not to include a wall power adapter, maybe to cut down on costs. The wall power adapter (plugs into the mini-USB socket on the Neeon) can be bought separately. The unit can be recharged through a computer's USB port. However, an inclusion of a power adapter would have been nice.
Looks
The Neeon.
Front:
Screen displays EQ, Repeat mode, battery life, time progress of song, song number (e.g. 2/18), scrolling song title, progress bar and finally length of the song.
Left:
Volume Control and Hold slider.
Top:
2.5mm line-in jack, 3.5mm headphone jack and mini-USB port.
Right:
Rocker and Play/Pause button.
Back:
Brushed aluminium back.
Smaller than a credit card:
7 colors LED:
Orange:
Green:
Blue:
Violet:
Cyan:
Lime Green:
Light Blue:
There is also an option for random LED colors. This means that a random color will be displayed each time the Neeon lights up.
Navigation
If you have used a Creative mp3 player before, the Neeon menu system is basically the same as the other players. During the startup, the 7 colors LED will flash alternately. Startup can take anything from 12 seconds to 30 seconds, depending on whether any updating of content is needed (after new file/music transfer).
The interface is a tad laggy. It can be slow to respond at times. The scroller is not an actual wheel. It is basically a 'rocker'. It can be moved up, down and pressed in to select items.
You would have to be quite fast in selecting things, or else the player will go back to the Now Playing screen after around 6 seconds of inactivity. There is a back '<-' arrow at the end of every menu list that allows you to go back. But it might be tedious if the list is long. For example, when browsing the folders, and you are smack in the middle of a long list, waiting 6 seconds might be faster instead of trying to scroll to the '<-' option.
The Neeon will remember the last place you stopped at inside the sub-menus. For example, if you were browsing in a folder and you selected the second song from the ABC folder to play, the next time you go into Browse menu, it will bring you back to the second song of ABC folder. Some people may not like this as they might prefer to be brought to the current folder or song that is being played. This is also the same for other sub-menus, such as Play Mode, Backlight, etc. It will bring you back to the last choice you selected.
Loading of songs is done through Drag-and-Drop method in Windows Explorer. No software is required. The Neeon shows up as an external drive in Windows Explorer. Transfer speed is around the same as the Micro and the Muvo2 FM (i.e. microdrive speed), not blazingly fast like the Sony HD3, but not too shabby either. After disconnecting the USB from the computer, restart time is noticably faster than the Muvo2 FM. Browsing of songs on the Neeon is folder-based.
Playback
The Neeon seems to have some problem fast-forwarding and rewinding VBR MP3 tracks. For example, the time would sometimes go forward a bit when rewinding and go backwards a bit when forwarding (something similar to taking 2 steps forward and 1/2 a step back).
There is a gap between songs. Unlike the Muvo2 FM player which has a tiny gap, the gap between songs on the Neeon is quite big. Gap between songs is around 4 seconds.
edit: I've read on DAP Review that someone thinks my stopwatch is broken and that the 4 secs gap is unbelievable. Let me say this, the gap is really around 4 seconds. For example, between songs which are supposed to be 'gapless' (i.e. smooth transition between tracks), the Neeon has a 3-4 seconds gap between them. On some songs, at the last 2-3 seconds, there is even stuttering as the player buffers the next track. I suspect that the player buffers the next song too close to the current one that is playing, resulting in the long delay in loading the next track and the occasional stutter. Hope Creative will fix this in the next firmware release.
There is no On-The-Fly playlist. Playlists can be imported into the player though.
When you switch off the player or go into any of the recording modes or radio, it will not continue from the position where you last stopped. Instead, it will go to the the start of the track again. For tracks which are very long, it might be a bit of a problem since you would have to fast-forward to the position where you last stopped.
Deleting of music tracks can be done on the player itself. Data files cannot be deleted since it does not show up in the player itself.
Features
The Stik-on is what makes the Neeon special. But I have not tried applying the default rainbow sticker on as I feel that it looks the best when naked.
The Neeon comes with mic recording, line-in recording and radio. Recording bitrate can be set to 32kbps wav, 96kbps mp3, 128kbps mp3 or 160kbps mp3.
The line-in recording jack has a peculiar 2.5mm jack instead of the normal 3.5mm jack. Creative has provided a 'line-in cable" that has a 2.5mm pole on one end and a 3.5mm pole the other end. Line-in recording has a Track Detection function. I presume this function is similar to those used in MiniDisc analogue recording, where a silence of of more than 3-4 seconds will mean a seperate track. In Neeon's case, it means another file.
Radio reception is pretty decent and recording from radio is possible. Recording quality is pretty good.
Sound
The sound quality is excellent from both the Creative ep-630 earphones (Sharp MD33 clone) and the Etymotic ER6i and could drive both with no problems. The headphone power output is rated at 5-7mW per channel.
The soundstage is good. It does not sound too narrow nor does it sound too wide.
The 5 band EQ has +14 steps and -14 steps for each band. The EQ is very adjustable and one would definitely be able to find a setting that suits his listening preference. Unlike the Muvo2 FM, the bass on the Neeon can be pushed to the max without distorting.
Creative has also fixed the hissing problem when the backlight comes on. I believe this problems affects most of Creative's products, including the Micro. On the Neeon, there is no hissing whatsoever. Switching tracks will produce a little 'tick' sound before the track starts playing, but its nothing to be bothered about.
Conclusion
For the Neeon, Creative has chosen to focus more on the design aspect of the player rather than the functionality. The Neeon has a very Zen feel to it and the 7 colors LED backlight makes the player fun and hip. The Neeon will appeal to young working adults who want something that looks classy and serves basic playback needs. For the more experienced DAP owners, the Neeon will feel like 'another similar Creative product'. The software problems needs to be ironed out, such as the VBR MP3 rewind-forward problem and the 'go back to start of track' problem. Other than that, the Neeon is a very small-sized player and has excellent sound quality.
